by Dave Williams | Aug 21, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Georgia’s 1% tax on strip clubs to raise money to combat child sex trafficking singles out the wrong target, a lawyer for the Georgia Association of Club Executives told the state Supreme Court Wednesday.
The General Assembly passed the Safe Harbor Act in 2015 to generate a source of revenue to support rehabilitative care and other social services for sexually exploited children. Georgia voters overwhelmingly approved a referendum the following year to add the act to the state Constitution.
But the tax unfairly punishes owners of businesses that aren’t responsible for child sex trafficking because minors aren’t allowed in the clubs either as dancers or customers, Alexander Volokh argued during a hearing challenging the constitutionality of the law. Massage parlors and lingerie modeling studios would be more appropriate targets for such a tax, he said.
“Everybody knows adult entertainment establishments are horrible,” Volokh told the justices. “(But) the legislature lumped very dissimilar entities together. Certainly, child sex trafficking is a problem, but it’s not the adult entertainment establishments.”
But Georgia Deputy Solicitor General Ross Bergethon said lawmakers relied on studies linking prostitution with strip clubs in passing the bill. Therefore, taxing adult entertainment businesses is appropriate, he said.
“The state is trying to mitigate the negative social effects of these businesses,” he said.
Volokh also argued the law is a form of “content-discriminatory taxation” that violates First Amendment protection of freedom of procession long upheld by the courts.
Bergethon countered that the state has the same right to tax strip clubs as it does other entertainment venues including movie theaters and sports stadiums.
“Strip clubs have no more constitutional protection than these other activities,” he said.
The case came to the state Supreme Court after the association of more than a dozen adult entertainment establishments appealed a ruling from a Fulton County trial court dismissing their lawsuit against the state and Georgia Revenue Commissioner Frank O’Connell.
by Dave Williams | Aug 21, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The Federal Aviation Administration has awarded two grants to help accelerate the development of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) in Georgia.
LanzaJet, a SAF producer, will receive nearly $3.1 million to support its new production facility in Soperton, U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., announced Tuesday.
Another $240,000 will go to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport to strengthen the regional supply chains and infrastructure needed to deploy SAF at the world’s busiest airport.
SAF is a biofuel that can reduce greenhouse gas emissions up to 85% compared with conventional petroleum-based jet fuel. It was described during a state Senate study committee meeting last week as a new market for Georgia’s timber industry, which is being buffeted by declining prices brought on by the closing of pulp and paper mills.
“Georgia should lead the nation in clean energy and renewable energy technology,” Ossoff said. “LanzaJet and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport are a key part of that effort.”
“SAF is the best opportunity aviation has to decarbonize,” LanzaJet CEO Jimmy Samartzis added. “Funding like this will be instrumental in achieving aviation’s net zero targets while also supporting domestic energy security and economic development by investing in rural communities across the country.”
Europe is leading the way in deploying sustainable aviation fuel. The European Union will require commercial aircraft to burn at least 6% SAF by 2030, a percentage that will increase gradually each year until it reaches 70% in 2050.
by Dave Williams | Aug 20, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – State energy regulators gave final approval Tuesday to Georgia Power’s plan to build three new “dual-fuel” turbines at Plant Yates near Newnan.
The Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) signed off on the proposal unanimously after officials with the Atlanta-based utility pitched the plan as necessary to meet the growing need for energy generating capacity prompted by an unanticipated demand for power. Much of that increased demand stems from an influx of power-hungry data centers cropping up across the state.
Environmental groups opposed the project as an unwelcome continuation of Georgia Power’s reliance on fossil fuels for power generation at a time utilities are moving away from coal and gas toward renewable sources of electricity.
The new turbines will run mostly on natural gas but switch to ultra low-sulfur diesel fuel when gas is unavailable.
The project’s opponents asked the PSC in recent weeks to hold off on certifying the turbines until an all-source request for proposals (RFP) Georgia Power is pursuing determines whether other less costly, lower-polluting options might be available.
But Georgia Power officials argued that any alternative sources of electricity the RFP produces wouldn’t be ready in time to meet the capacity needs of customers starting in the winter of 2026.
During negotiations that led to the commission’s staff endorsing the project, Georgia Power agreed to submit semi-annual construction monitoring reports updating the status of the work. However, unlike the monitoring process that took place during construction of the nuclear expansion at the utility’s Plant Vogtle, the PSC doesn’t anticipate holding hearings on each report.
The turbines project generated extensive back-and-forth during last week’s meeting of the commission’s Energy Committee. As a result, Tuesday’s vote took place with little discussion.
by Dave Williams | Aug 20, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Georgia lawmakers heard the pros and cons Tuesday of the University System of Georgia’s current semester system compared to the quarter system the state’s public colleges and universities used until 1999.
The university system made the switch from quarters to semesters primarily to align Georgia schools with most universities across the country, Dana Nichols, the system’s vice chancellor for academic affairs and student success, told members of a House study committee meeting on the campus of Georgia Southern University in Statesboro.
Besides making transferring to a Georgia university easier for the growing number of out-of-state students, the switch helped graduating students looking to enter the workforce, Nichols said. While students in other states were graduating in May, Georgia students under the quarter system typically weren’t completing their degrees until June, she said.
“The semester (system) graduates were getting to the job market before our graduates were,” she said.
Nichols said converting to the semester system also allowed students to spend more time on each course, increasing the depth of their learning.
On the other hand, the quarter system lets students take more courses during an academic year, making it easier for double majors. Three terms of 10 weeks rather than two terms of 15 weeks also meant fewer breaks, Nichols said.
“There’s no lengthy breaks to disrupt the learning,” she said.
On the con side, the quarter system can make students feel rushed to meet more frequent deadlines, Nichols said.
Another advantage to the semester system is it allows universities to offer “mini-mesters” to students with courses that offer longer instructional periods over fewer weeks. It’s an option that is becoming increasingly popular, particularly among non-traditional students looking to complete two or more courses within a semester, Nichols said. All 26 institutions in the university system offer mini-mesters, she said.
House Speaker Jon Burns urged members of the study committee to keep an open mind when weighing the advantages and disadvantages of the two systems.
“The semester system has served us well,” said Burns, R-Newington. “(But) we need to be open to new solutions, new ideas.”
Rep. Shaw Blackmon, R-Bonaire, the committee’s chairman, said the panel will focus on the schools that make up the Technical College System of Georgia at its next meeting in September.
by Dave Williams | Aug 20, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – A national leader in delivering fresh meals will invest $6.3 million to expand its footprint in the rural community of Montezuma, creating more than 300 new jobs, Gov. Brian Kemp announced Tuesday.
FreshRealm’s expansion in Macon County will allow the company to add several new lines, including ready-to-heat and ready-to-cook meals and meal kits.
Kemp said the company fits in well with Georgia’s No.-1 industry – agriculture.
“Food and fiber production contributed $83.6 billion and 323,300 jobs to our economy this past year,” he said. “We’re thankful for the 300 new positions that will join that growing number of opportunities thanks to FreshRealm.”
“Montezuma is an excellent location for us strategically to reach the entire U.S., especially the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast,” added Snow Le, president of Texas-based FreshRealm. “We are proud to be expanding our operations in Georgia.”
FreshRealm will be hiring for positions across a range of roles, including entry-level assemblers, technical, and maintenance staff, as well as managerial positions. Interested individuals can learn more about those job opportunities at boards.greenhouse.io/freshrealm.
The state Department of Economic Development’s Global Commerce team worked on the project in partnership with the Development Authority of Macon County, Georgia Power, and the Technical College System of Georgia’s Quick Start program.
